Description of AI Behavior

Architectures

Procedural Terrain Generation

Fractal Mountains (Rescue on Fractalus!)

At the Lucasfilm Computer Division, Loren Carpenter was the primary creator of the fractal mountains in Star Trek 2's "Genesis effect" (video). Later he was asked by office mate David Fox if there might be a way to do similar fractal mountains on the Atari 800. Loren took home an Atari and within several weeks prototyped the fractal terrain for Rescue on Fractalus!.

Fractal Mountains (Star Trek 2)

Post-Mortem

What Worked

The fractal procedural terrain set the game apart with a unique visual look.

What Didn't Work

Due to the limited number of colors and processing power, the terrain was one color with jagged outlines. This made it a little difficult to make sense of the terrain depth when trying to land near a pilot. To help with navigation, an indicator in the top center gave additional information as to how close the ship was to the left and right mountains.